“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”
Declaration of Independence
Equal RightsFreedom
Equality Quotes
200 FAMOUS QUOTES · EQUALITY
Equality Quotes
Read 200 of the best equality quotes about equal rights, justice, women's rights and human dignity, from Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, Du Bois and more.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.”
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Women's RightsGender Equality
“Men are born and remain free and equal in rights.”
Declaration of the Rights of Man
Human RightsFreedom
“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
FreedomInjustice
“Every history of the creation agrees in establishing one point, the unity of man; by which I mean that men are all of one degree.”
Thomas Paine
UnityHuman Dignity
“I do not wish them to have power over men; but over themselves.”
Mary Wollstonecraft
Women's RightsIndependence
“It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world.”
Mary Wollstonecraft
JusticeFairness
“Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors.”
Abigail Adams
Women's RightsHistory
“I ask no favors for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they will take their feet from off our necks.”
Sarah Grimké
Women's RightsJustice
“Self-development is a higher duty than self-sacrifice.”
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Women's RightsSelf-Worth
“I have no idea of submitting tamely to injustice inflicted either on me or on the slave.”
Lucretia Mott
Standing UpJustice
“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.”
Susan B. Anthony
Gender EqualityRights
“The legal subordination of one sex to the other is wrong in itself, and now one of the chief hindrances to human improvement.”
John Stuart Mill
Gender EqualityProgress
“Right is of no sex - Truth is of no color - God is the Father of us all, and we are all brethren.”
Frederick Douglass
Racial EqualityUnity
“What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?”
Frederick Douglass
InjusticeFreedom
“If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again!”
Sojourner Truth
Women's StrengthEmpowerment
“The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line.”
W. E. B. Du Bois
Racial EqualityHistory
“One ever feels his twoness - an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body.”
W. E. B. Du Bois
IdentityRacial Justice
“The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
Ida B. Wells
TruthJustice
“Only the Black Woman can say 'when and where I enter, in the quiet, undisputed dignity of my womanhood, then and there the whole race enters with me.'”
Anna Julia Cooper
Black WomenDignity
“You can't hold a man down without staying down with him.”
Booker T. Washington
EqualityHumanity
“I have chosen this that I might illustrate in my death the principles which I advocated through a long life: Equality of Man before his Creator.”
Thaddeus Stevens
LegacyHuman Dignity
“Equality of rights is the first of rights.”
Charles Sumner
Equal RightsJustice
“The Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.”
George Washington
Religious FreedomTolerance
“The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately.”
Thomas Jefferson
Human DignityFreedom
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About Equality Quotes
Equality is the simple but powerful idea that every person deserves the same dignity, rights and opportunities, whatever their gender, race, religion, caste or background. Throughout history, brave men and women have fought to turn that idea into reality, often at great personal cost.
This collection brings together 200 of the best equality quotes about equal rights, justice, women's rights, racial equality and human dignity, from Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony, Mary Wollstonecraft, W. E. B. Du Bois, Thomas Jefferson and the great spiritual teachers. Use them for school projects, Women's Day, Human Rights Day or a reminder that fairness begins with how we treat each other.
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers about Equality quotes.
What is the most famous quote about equality?
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal" from the Declaration of Independence is one of the most famous equality quotes in history. In 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton rewrote it as "all men and women are created equal" for the Seneca Falls Declaration.
What are good quotes about gender equality?
Susan B. Anthony's "Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less" and Mary Wollstonecraft's "I do not wish them to have power over men; but over themselves" are powerful choices. Sarah Grimké's request that men "take their feet from off our necks" is